Recent advances in soft optical glass fiber and fiber lasers

Over the past two decades, fiber laser technologies have matured to such an extent that they have captured a large portion of the commercial laser marketplace. Yet, there still is a seemingly unquenchable thirst for ever greater optical power to levels where certain deleterious light-matter interactions that limit continued power scaling become significant. In the past decade or so, the industry has focused mainly on waveguide engineering to overcome many of these hurdles. However, there is an emerging body of work emphasizing the enabling role of the material. In an effort to underpin these developments, this paper reviews the relevance of the material in high power fiber laser technologies. As the durable material-of-choice for the application, the discussion will mainly be limited to silicate host glasses. The discussion presented herein follows an outward path, starting with the trivalent rare earth ions and their spectroscopic properties. The ion then is placed into a host, whose impact on the spectroscopy is reviewed. Finally, adverse interactions between the laser lightwave and the host are discussed, and novel composition glass fiber design and fabrication methodologies are presented. With deference to the symbiosis required between material and waveguide engineering in active fiber development, this review will emphasize the former. Specifically, where appropriate, materials-based paths to the enhancement of laser performance will be underscored.

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Materials for optical fiber lasers: A review

Applications involving optical fibers have grown considerably in recent years with intense levels of research having been focused on the development of not only new generations of optical fiber materials and designs, but also on new processes for their preparation. In this paper, we review the latest developments in advanced materials for optical fibers ranging from silica, to semi-conductors, to particle-containing glasses, to chalcogenides and also in process-related innovations.

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Glass and Process Development for the Next Generation of Optical Fibers: A Review

Efficient holmium fiber lasers have been studied as attractive laser sources operating around 2.1 μm. We report on holmium-doped silica fibers prepared by the modified chemical vapor deposition in combination with either a solution-doping method or a nanoparticle-doping method. A set of 15 fibers with various compositions was characterized and compared with respect to their fluorescence lifetime, laser slope efficiency and laser threshold. This set of fibers in wide concentration ranges allowed us to assess reliably the influence of material composition and the influence of doping method. The best-performance fibers exhibited slope efficiency 83.1%, laser threshold 155 mW and a record value of upper laser level lifetime of 1.35 ms. These results were achieved in fibers with holmium concentration lower than 800 molar ppm and Al/Ho molar ratio greater than 70. Significant differences between fibers prepared by solution doping and nanoparticle doping were not observed. The behavior of Al2O3 nanoparticles during fiber preparation is discussed in details.

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Nanoparticle and Solution Doping for Efficient Holmium Fiber Lasers

https://ceramics.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ijag.15844

Glass: The carrier of light—Part II—A brief look into the future of optical fiber

Europium doped alkaline earth fluoride [Eu:AEF2 (AE = Ca, Sr, Ba)] nanoparticles were synthesized and systematically incorporated into the core of modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD)-derived silica-based preforms by solution doping. The resulting preforms were examined to determine the impact of the nanoparticles chemistry on the spectroscopic behavior of the glass. The dominant existence of Eu3+ was demonstrated in all preforms, which is in contrast to conventional solution doped preforms employing dissolved europium salts where Eu2+ is primarily observed. Raman spectroscopy and fluorescence lifetime measurements indicated that the nanoparticles composition is effective in controlling, at a local chemical and structural level, the spectroscopic properties of active dopants in optical fiber glasses. Further, there is a systematic and marked increase in radiative lifetime, τ, of the Eu3+ emission that follows the cationic mass; τCa < τSr < τBa with the BaF2-derived sample yielding a 37% lengthening of the lifetime over the CaF2-derived one. Such nanoscale control of what otherwise is silica glass could be useful for realizing property-enhanced and tailored spectroscopic performance from otherwise “standard” materials, e.g., vapor-derived silica, in next generation optical fibers.

https://commons.erau.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1755&context=publication

T. Lindstrom

Papers

Spectral engineering of optical fiber preforms through active nanoparticle doping